Zimbabwean Vice-President Simon Muzenda on Saturday defended awarding a ZD1,3 billion pay-tv contract to a United States firm because the initial winner of the tender was no longer able to implement the project.

The scandal has also knocked shares in a News Corp takeover target, Australian pay-tv company Austar, which has agreed a $2 billion-plus takeover offer from its bigger rival Foxtel, which is owned by News Corp's News Ltd division, billionaire James Packer's Consolidated Media Holdings, and telecom company Telstra.

Australian shares sank to a two-year low on Monday as the UK phone hacking scandal fallout worsened, raising concerns that a $2 billion bid for an Australian pay-tv firm involving News Corp could be derailed by political intervention.

Under this new agreement, movies from those studios can come to Netflix 90 days after they debut on the premium pay-tv and subscription VOD services.

ZAP is an Angolan pay-tv operator, using satellite DTH distribution in the region of Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on content and channels in the Portuguese language targeted for Portuguese Speaking Households.